| 词组 | consensus |
| 释义 | consensus 1. The consensus of opinion among writers on usage since the 1940s is that the phrase consensus of opinion is redundant. We have added "of opinion" advisedly; this is indeed a matter of opinion and not of fact, as will appear in what follows. Consensus, it appears from OED evidence, rather suddenly developed at least three different new uses around the middle of the 19th century. The OED suggests the word itself first insinuated its way into the language through a physiological meaning introduced in a 16th-century book on physiology apparently written in Latin. In 1854 we have a "consensus of forces," in 1858 a "consensus of... evidence," in 1861 a "consensus of the Protestant missionaries," and in 1874 a "consensus of opinion." The connection between the physiologist's and the modern uses is perhaps illustrated by this citation from John Stuart Mill's A System of Logic. Unfortunately our nearly hundred-year-old slip does not tell us whether the passage was taken from the third edition of 1851 or the eighth of 1872; if it was the 1851, this would be an early citation indeed: • There is, in short, what physiologists term a consensus, similar to that existing among the various organs and functions of the physical frame of man and the more perfect animals, and constituting one of the many analogies which have rendered universal such expressions as the "body politic" —John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic The early citations suggest that consensus was not then limited to opinion, and indeed it has not been since. The Merriam-Webster files have instances of "consensus of views," "consensus of preference," "consensus of support," "consensus of political comments," "consensus of advanced thinking," "consensus of experts," "consensus of agreement," "consensus of behavior," "consensus of values," "consensus of belief," "consensus of readings," "consensus of dissent," "consensus of conscience," "consensus of scholarship," and "consensus of usage." Thus, the cautious writer might well be tempted to write consensus of opinion, being aware that consensus can be used of other things. This is the point made in the following passage, probably written by Frank H. Vizetelly: • The accepted meaning of consensus is "general agreement." It is commonly defined as "a collective unanimous opinion of a number of persons," and on this account the phrase "consensus of opinion" appears to be tautological. But as there may be consensus of thought, of functions, of forces, etc., it is not tautological to speak of a "consensus of opinion." Besides, the phrase is an English idiom —Literary Digest, 1 May 1926 The opinion that consensus of opinion is redundant appears to have begun with James Gordon Bennett the younger, who ran the New York Herald from 1867 until 1918. A list of his Don'ts for use by editors of the paper is reprinted in an appendix in Bernstein 1971. The list is not dated, but consensus of opinion was probably added to the list toward the end of Bennett's tenure; none of our late-19th-century or early-20th-century usage books mention it. Even Fowler 1926 notes consensus only because he found it confused with census. Although the question must have been in the air in 1926, as the excerpt from the Literary Digest above indicates, we find little discussion of it in books until the 1940s. Since that time nearly every writer on usage has clambered onto the bandwagon. Of all our recent writers on usage, only Freeman 1983 seems to be aware ofthe issues discussed in the Literary Digest. He has also read Webster's Second, which has this note: "The expression consensus of opinion, although objected to by some, is now generally accepted as in good use." • Such is the consensus of opinion of the leading authorities on international law —Thomas F. Bayard (U.S. Secretary of State), dispatch, 1 Nov. 1887 • The following comments are indicative of the present consensus of opinion —MacCracken & Sandison 1917 • It was the consensus of opinion of all their speeches that there was a lot of drinking going on —Will Rogers, The Illiterate Digest, 1924 • We made a systematic attempt to ascertain the consensus of usage throughout the English-speaking world —Frank H. Vizetelly, N. Y. Times, 2 Jan. 1927 • ... the consensus of scholarship ... assigns the two plays to Tourneur —T. S. Eliot, "Cyril Tourneur," in Selected Essays, 1932 • Tennyson's reaction to the consensus of critical opinion —PMLA, September 1951 • This language, according to a consensus of scholarly opinion —W. K. Matthews, Languages of the U.S.S.R., 1951 • It is a consensus of opinion which derives additional significance from the fact that ... —Times Literary Supp., 13 Feb. 1943 • In the end, without a vote, but because it seemed to be the consensus of opinion —The Autobiography of William Allen White, 1946 • In place of authority in science, we have and we need to have only the consensus of informed opinion — J. Robert Oppenheimer, New Republic, 26 Apr. 1954 • The consensus of their opinion, based on reports that had drifted back from the border —John Her-sey, New Yorker, 2 Mar. 1957 • ... in a manner that maintains a consensus of public opinion—avoiding disruptive attack from Right and Left —Gaddis Smith, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 3 June 1973 The decision for you is whether you want to use consensus of opinion, and make your meaning perfectly clear while running the risk of being wrongly censured for redundancy, or use consensus alone and risk less than full clarity, perhaps. Technically, consensus of opinion is not a redundancy, but many nonetheless believe it is. You are safe using consensus alone when it is clear that you mean consensus of opinion, and most writers in fact do so. 2. General consensus. Some of the writers who condemn consensus of opinion as a redundancy do the same for general consensus. Their argument in this case is on a better footing, for generality is indeed part of the meaning of consensus. The added general is probably felt by the writers who use it to have an intensive effect: • There is a general consensus that some social plan of production for the needs of the community, rather than for individual profit, is necessary if the routine of civilized life is to continue —Morris R. Cohen, The Faith of a Liberal, 1946 General is sometimes added to consensus of opinion, though perhaps more often formerly than nowadays. • ... the general consensus of opinion in the City — The Spectator, 3 Jan. 1925 3. Concensus. Freeman 1983, Reader's Digest 1983, Howard 1977, and Copperud 1970 all note concensus as a frequent misspelling of consensus. We have a fair amount of evidence of its turning up in publications where it should have been detected. Perhaps the most amusing example is reported in Daniels 1983: he found it in an invitation issued by a large university for him to participate in a project to study problems of student illiteracy. The OED notes the spelling as an obsolete variant of consensus. It is no longer acceptable. |
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